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DICE Awards to honor late Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata

The 2016 DICE Awards will be granting the Lifetime Achievement award to Satoru Iwata, the beloved Nintendo executive who served as president of the company until he passed away last June.

The ceremony will be held in Las Vegas on February 18, and will mark the first time that the prestigious accolade was awarded posthumously. Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award include Ken Kutaragi, “The Father of the PlayStation” and Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln, two individuals who served at Nintendo of America and are credited with reviving the American video game industry following the crash of 1983.

The Lifetime Achievement award is granted infrequently and is not to be confused with the Hall of Fame award, which will go this year to Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima. Last year’s recipients of the Hall of Fame award were pivotal figures from Rockstar Games, namely Dan Houser, Sam Houser and Leslie Benzies, in honor of their work on the Grand Theft Auto series. Other recipients include Valve’s Gabe Newell, former Bioware execs Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka and Epic Game’s Tim Sweeney.

Iwata served as Nintendo’s company president during its most successful period, and is credited with reversing the company’s fortunes following a decade long slump that coincided with increasing competition from other consoles such as the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox 360. He ushered in the most successful generation of Nintendo consoles with the DS and Wii and their successors, the 3DS and Wii U.

Iwata’s legacy is fondly remembered, and will extend into the next few years when Nintendo unveils it’s next console, tentatively named NX.